Floor time made easy?

[My Baby Mu]

Is there some 'special' way that makes floor time alot easier? The setup I usually use is a vynal table cloth on the bottom (so nothing soaks to my carpet), possibly a fairly thin fabric on top, then all of their toys and other fun stuff. It takes me forever to set out and then clean up at the end, also it seens as if they don't like it too much. Any ideas?

[-Emma-]

I have the exact same problem.

[Jenni_Feathers]

Is there anyway that you could make a permanet area? Like for example, I made a permanent pen in my basement, any way you could do something like that? It makes it so much easier.

[-Emma-]

Yeah that would be great to have a permanent pen like the one youve got. Theres not really anywhere in our house. we have 5 bedrooms a kitchen a utility room 2 sitting rooms 3 bathrooms and a dining room and the garage. And my mum dosent let me put a pen up in any room other than the kitchen the utility room and me and my sisters bedrooms but the biggest pen we could put up would be like a 3x4 and I think thats far to small for floortime. Right now since my sister is away for a couple of days I have a 3x6 pen set up in her room and its great just to be able to plop them in all the time but when she gets back I will have to take it down. So im kind of stuck.
I normally do floor time in the utility room but ive stopped that because the garage door is off of that room and im always worried that one of my little monkeys runs off looking for an adventure. So I always end up doing floor time in the kitchen but its a hassle for all of us because we need to get into the kitchen and its like an obsticle course just to get to the fridge. I t would be good to have a basement but we dont get basements here in the UK.

Any ideas ?

Thanks

[Biscuit]

I'm in the same boat. We do playtime in the middle of the living room. It brings us so much fun and them too that we just work around the annoyances. I lay on the couch and sip my favorite wine and nibble cheese and watch the pigs at play every Friday night. I know, I'm a happen'n, wild 20-something living the hip urban downtown life.

Anyway! I use almost the same things as you. I set up a thin king sized mattress pad over a vinyl shower curtain, then put them pen on the edges of it.

Afterwards, I just pick up the pad and dump the hay and poo off the balcony onto the city parking lot behind me. I'd feel bad about this but it all blows away within minutes. It's...natural! Then I use the hand vac quickly on the area. Sometimes it feels like a pain but it really only takes a few minutes.

[guineapigluver1]

What should I put down on the floor during floor time, so that nothing will soak down to the floor? The house we are most likely getting has carpet in every room in the house even the foyer, except for the kitchen, the breakfast area, and the bathrooms.

[fourboys4now]

I don't know what I would do if all my rooms were carpeted. We have a very long kitchen/dining room that is hard wood floors. I just put up a piece of coroplast so they can't get in the living room and let them run free.

[guineapigluver1]

That sounds like a good idea, I'll ask my mom if we can get some extra coroplast for that

[naturegal592]

My kitchen is tile so I put up an extra child gate in the doorway and let them go. It is cold right now so I put a large piece of fleece in the middle of the floor that they can warm there little feet on. I always sweep first though and make sure there isn't any dog food down or any dropped food (crumbs) on the floor.

[pigsforlife]

I cable tied grids together making a 4x4, this collapses pretty easily underneath my bed. When it is time for floor time I take it out, pop it open, place the mattress protector down (I often place this down first, then bring the sides of the protector up the sides of the grids and peg it at the top) and put the pigs in. I dont really put many toys in the pen. I have a box of shredded newspaper, so I chuck a dozen handfuls of that in there, plus some hay and a couple of cardboard boxes.

When floor time is over, I pick up the grids, collapse it down and put it back underneath my bed. Then roll up the mattress protector and shake it outside - good mulch

[bamby71994]

I let my boy in the dining room. Then I sit and watch him with a cushion pulled up. Its a really easy set up. I make little hideys with carboard and blankies. Then I block off the birds cage(he would eat the bird seed otherwise.)